The present paper discusses two major issues that emerge from the comparative analysis of ecclesiastical documents from the cities of Serres, Moschopolis, Kozani and Philippopoli. At first the discussion will focus on the notion of local notability in Christian Greek-speaking communities in Ottoman cities in the Balkans before the Tanzimat reforms. We observe that the Greek sources shed no light on the notion of the notable. Apart from various institutional leaders such as the clericals, the archonts, the elders and the chief artisans, merchants too could be classified among the ruling elites of the Christian communities. Subsequently, we will investigate whether the status that the Christian notables (proestoi) enjoyed outside their community was analogous to their status within it; in other words, whether the proestoi were recognised as such by the state’s representatives that constituted the urban authorities. This will be achieved by means of comparing the social category of the proestoi with that of the a’yan ve eşraf, so as to find out whether they behaved but also whether they were represented similarly. It should be stressed that, despite the fact that the Ottoman and Greek concepts of local notability may differ in the basic points, in practice the local notable seems to entail the same content in both milieus. Rather than forming distinct groups associated with privileges, the members of local elites, both the Muslim and the infidels, constituted a group “de fait”. As such, they were distinguished by their ability to influence local affairs, which resulted from their involvement in powerful networks established on local and central levels.